


the waters around you have grown

by ohmcgee



Series: ohmcgee's mallverse [49]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, Angst, Kidfic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 14:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8492935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmcgee/pseuds/ohmcgee
Summary: "She said she was on birth control."





	

“We gotta talk.”

Roy Harper has never met a conversation that started with “we need to talk” that he didn’t want to run away from. The fact that it’s coming out of Jade’s mouth, who he hasn’t seen in actual _years_ , doesn’t make him feel any better about the situation.

“If this is about your blu-ray player,” Roy says. “It’s really not my fault that it broke when you _threw it at me_.”

“It kinda was,” Jade says, tapping her stilletto nails on the glass case between them. “But whatever. I need you to do a thing.”

Roy blinks at her, scratches behind his ear. “Uh. How about no? We had crazy sex like a million years ago, you threw a lot of small appliances at me, and then you disappeared off the face of the earth. Why would I do anything --”

A small head of black hair pokes up from the edge of the counter, big brown eyes staring back at him with a little line of freckles on the bridge of her nose, and Roy’s totally thrown off his rant.

“Um. Hi?”

“Octopuses are cephalopods,” the little girl says to him, fairly articulate for someone so short, and holds up the stuffed octopus plush in her hands.

“Neat,” Roy mutters and looks back up at Jade. “Whose child did you steal and why?”

Jade just rolls her eyes and pushes the little girl to the display of Pop figures that Roy spent _hours_ getting straight.

“That’s what I needed to talk to you about,” she says, frowning distastefully at the tattoo on Roy’s wrist. “I’m going on tour with my boyfriend’s band and I need you to watch her while I’m gone.”

Roy looks up and Jade and squints like she’d just spoken to him in ancient sumerian or something.

“Oh yeah,” Jade says, fixing her purple lipstick in the tiny mirror on the sunglasses rack. “She’s yours.”

 

: : :

 

“Funny,” Jay says loudly when he walks in the store. “I don’t _see_ flames. And if the store’s not on fire then why the _fuck_ am I here on my day off. _Roy --_ ”

“Oh, hey Jaybird,” Roy’s head pops up from behind the counter. He’s on the floor with Steph’s Harry Potter coloring book, the box of markers out of Dick’s office, and a small child.

“Shit,” Jay says. “Did another parent leave their kid in our store again? What the hell is wrong with people, I swear to --”

“I’ll be right back, okay?” Roy says to the little girl, climbing up off the floor. “Just stay right here.”

The little girl just nods, her tiny black pigtails bouncing as she continues to color in the golden snitch with a pink highlighter.

“Roy,” Jay says, glaring at him suspiciously as Roy pulls him to the back of the store. “What’s the deal? Who’s the kid?”

Roy lets out a deep, shaky breath, takes his hat off and runs his hand through his hair, then looks back over at the kid. “You remember Jade?”

Jay narrows his eyes at him. “Crazy bitch that gave you a black eye with a toaster?”

“Yeah,” Roy nods, looking back at him. “That’s the one. She told me she was on birth control.”

“She…” Jason starts, following Roy’s gaze back to the little girl coloring behind the counter. When he tries to put everything together it doesn’t make _sense_ , not even in their little fucked up world. No way. “Shut the fuck up. That’s not even funny, Roy. Where’s Tim, is he in on this too. I --”

“Oh fuck,” Roy says, eyes just zoning out for a minute before he looks back at Jason. He’s got this look on his face that Jay can’t quite place because he doesn’t think he’s ever seen Roy look this scared and vulnerable before. “Tim. God Jay, he’s gonna --”

“Hey,” Jay says, grabbing Roy’s face just before he starts to spiral. “Forget about Tim for a second. Are you fucking serious? That’s your kid?”

Roy doesn’t say anything, just nods.

Jay takes a deep breath. “Okay,” he says, then grabs Roy and pulls him into a hug because he looks like he needs that more than anything right now, then pulls back enough to bring their foreheads together. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

He honestly doesn’t know _how_ at the moment, but that part doesn’t matter. He’ll _make_ it be okay. That’s what he does.

“Tim hates kids,” Roy mumbles. “He’s gonna bolt, Jay. He’s gonna --”

“Shut up,” Jay says softly, pressing his lips to Roy’s forehead. “You don’t know that. Hell, I’d say none of us ever really have any idea how Tim is going to react to anything, so just don’t go there right now.”

Roy nods and looks back over at the little girl coloring, _his_ little girl. Christ.

“Take the day off,” Jay says, pulling his phone out of his back pocket. “I’m gonna call Steph and Dick in and tell them what’s up and then I’m going to help you get her settled.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Roy says, putting his cap back on his head.

“Please,” Jay says, smirking as he puts his phone up to his ear as Steph’s phone starts ringing. “You know anyone else who can child-proof a house in a hour?”

 

: : :

 

“Did you forget your key?” Lian asks, her little eyebrows drawn together when she looks up at him.

Roy sighs. He’s got his key in his hand. He’s just not ready to open the door yet, to have to explain this to Tim. He’s not ready to watch him freak out and withdraw again and this time, Roy’s not even sure he’ll come back from it.

“Nah,” Roy says. “I was just thinking.”

“About what?” Lian asks, looking up at him with her big, brown eyes. This is too fucking crazy, Roy thinks. She’s _his._ It’s fucking surreal, is what, and he doesn’t even know how to process it. How in the hell can he expect Tim to?

“Just stuff,” Roy says, then takes a deep breath and opens the door. All the lights are still off, so Tim’s probably sleeping off his hangover from last night.

Lian looks around, squinting at the mess on the couch.

“Uh, here,” Roy says, scooping all the clothes off the couch , and the pizza box, _and_ the porn dvd stuck in the cushion. “You can sit here. Do you want something to drink? Like...water?”

At least he’s pretty sure they paid that bill this week.

“Do you have any kool-aid?” Lian asks, holding her octopus under her chin as she turns around and watches Roy go through the cabinets.

“Uh,” he says. “I’ve got jello? That’s kinda like kool-aid before it gets all wiggly?”

Lian stares at him.

“Yeah, you’re right. I promise I’ll get kool-aid soon, okay? I just need to --”

Roy smacks his head on the freezer door when he hears the door to Tim’s room creak open. He watches, frozen in his spot, as Lian gets up and walks over to Tim when he pads into the living room, glitter still smeared across his eyelids, wearing nothing but the bright green tutu Roy fucked him in last night after Kara’s party.

Tim just stares at her when she walks up and touches the hem of his tutu, then looks up at him, eyes big and bright when she asks, “Are you a princess?”

Tim squints down at her and rubs his eyes. “Sometimes. Who are you?”

“Lian,” she tells him, squinting back as she looks up at him. “Are you my daddy’s boyfriend?”

Roy thinks this is what having a heart attack feels like. Or maybe a brain aneurysm. Actually, both.

“Sometimes,” Tim says, then finally looks over at Roy. His expression is indecipherable and Roy can’t fucking breathe. “I’m going to get coffee.”

Roy gets Lian a drink of water and some paper from the printer to color on, then follows Tim into his room. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Tim says, picking up clothes off the floor. “Have you seen my pink shirt?”

“No,” Roy lies. “Listen --”

“No,” Tim says back. “I’m not -- we’re not talking about this right now. I’m hungover and it’s too fucking early and you have a child, apparently? This is not happening right now.”

“Yeah,” Roy says. “Except it is.”

“Roy --”

“No, fuck you,” Roy snaps. “I just want you to tell me to my face when you decide to take off this time.”

Tim stares at him for a long time, then just gets up and pulls on the first shirt and pair of jeans he can find. “I’m going to get coffee,” he says, grabbing his keys off the dresser. “I’ll be back.”

“Nah,” Roy says, sitting down on the edge of the bed after Tim slams the front door. “You won’t.”

 

: : :

 

“So for this one, you just flip it up like --”

“Jay,” Roy says. “She’s four and a half. I don’t think we need all these things.”

“Whatever,” Jay says. “With you and Tim in the same house you can never be too careful.”

“Anyway,” Roy says, quickly changing the subject. “You said you brought food.”

“Uh huh,” Jay says, pointing over to Lian sitting at the table he also brought over, one Bruce had in the garage holding up a couple of old amps. “I brought some muffins and cookies and some leftovers from last night, pot roast and potatoes and carrots, mashed potatoes -- she doesn’t have any allergies, does she?”

“Uh,” Roy says, pulling out the list Jade wrote him on the back of a Hot Topic receipt. “It doesn’t say anything about it.”

“Christ,” Jay mutters. “This is a clusterfuck.”

“Yep,” Roy says, closing his eyes as he leans back against the fridge.

“Sorry,” Jay says. “I just can’t believe she did this to you, man.”

“It’ll be okay though, right?” Roy asks because he really just needs someone to lie to him right now.

“Duh,” Jay smiles at him and about that time Dick bursts through the door with two watermelons in his arms.

“Oh my god,” Jay says. “It’s November. Where the fuck did he even find watermelons? Dick _why_ do you have watermelons?”

“Kids love watermelons!” Dick grins, spilling them out of his arms onto the counter. “You cut them into little triangles and they go nuts. Remember when we used to have seed spitting contests?”

Roy can’t help but laugh at two of them as Jason tries to find room in Roy’s kitchen for two fucking huge watermelons.

Behind him, M and Apollo come in with a couple of buckets of fried chicken and everyone sits down to eat once they get the twin bed Roy bought off craigslist put together. Bruce comes over when he gets off work to pick Jason up and Steph comes by when her shift is over, bringing gifts of stuffed animals and a Powerpuff Girl bedspread that she doesn’t need anymore.

Every time the door opens Roy knows Tim isn’t going to come through it.

 

: : :

 

“I know everything’s nuts,” Roy says later that night as he sits on the edge of Lian’s new bed. “And this place isn’t like, a real home or anything. Not yet, anyway.”

“I like it,” Lian says. “I found a gummy bear in the dvd player.”

Roy snorts. “Anyway, I’m just -- I’m really glad you’re here. And I’m sorry you had no idea who I was until now.”

“It’s not your fault,” Lian says, touching his hand. “Mommy told me. She said not to be mad at you because she was selfish and didn’t want to share. I understand.”

“You know how I know you’re my kid?” Roy says, pushing her hair behind her ear. “Because you’re so super smart.”

Lian smiles up at him. “I like your friends too. Is the princess coming back?”

Roy kisses her on the top of the head and pulls the covers up to her chest. “Maybe this house is only big enough for one princess,” he says and turns the lights off on his way out.

 

: : :

 

Sunday morning Lian wakes Roy up at seven-thirty in the morning by poking him in the face.

“I’m hungry,” she says and Roy falls out of bed.

Thanks to Jay the fridge is stocked with milk that hasn’t expired and M donated one of the many boxes of cereal in their pantry, so Roy cleans a bowl from the sink and makes Lian some Fruit Loops, then finds a plastic spoon in the drawer with all the takeout menus and gives it to her to eat with.

“I can totally do breakfast,” he says, then lays his head on the table and passes back out.

Jay cleaned up a lot when he was there yesterday, but after breakfast Roy’s still finding shit everywhere, like lube stashed in couch cushions and condoms laying literally everywhere, and jesus christ, trying to figure out how to blockade Tim’s room so she never, ever goes in there.

By eleven o’ clock Roy’s exhausted and Lian’s crashed on the couch, one of Tim’s Sailor Moon dvds playing on loop in the tv, so Roy stumbles back to his bed and passes out.

When he wakes up he can hear something different on the tv, so he figures Lian must be awake. He doesn’t know if that’s bad or not. She seems like a pretty capable kid, but what if she tried to do something crazy while he was passed out? What if she found the Jager in the back of the fridge and thought it was apple juice? What if she wrote all over the walls with Tim’s lipstick? What if she stood on a chair and unlocked the door and she’s wondering around the city and --

Roy stops dead in the hall when he hears Tim’s voice. He peeks around the corner and sees him sitting on the couch next to Lian, talking to her.

“I like your cephalopod,” he says and Lian grins this big, bright shining monster of a grin that makes Roy’s chest ache.

“Her name is Lola,” Lian tells him. “Did you knows octopuses have three hearts?”

“ I did,” Tim says.

“Did you know they can change color with their environment?”

“I did.”

“Did you know they can --”

“Sorry,” Roy says, stepping into the room. “I guess I passed out. Hey, kiddo. How long have you been awake?”

“Just a few minutes,” Lian says, sitting up on her knees and looking at Roy over the back of the couch. “He’s not a princess anymore.”

“Yeah,” Roy says, giving her a little smile. “That happens. You’re probably hungry, huh? I think I’ve got some --”

“Tim brought me a happy meal,” Lian says, holding out her toy robot. “It’s not a real robot, but I still like it.”

“Okay,” Roy says because he’s kind of at a loss here. It seems to be a recurring theme. “I’m gonna go in my room and talk to Tim for a few minutes, okay?”

“Okay,” Lian says, shoving a fry into her mouth as Tim gets up and follows Roy into the bedroom.

For a minute all they do is just stand there. Then Tim sits down on the edge of the bed.

“What in the hell are you wearing?” Is the first thing Roy says to him.

Tim looks down at his khakis. “I stayed at my parents house last night,” he says. “This was the only thing that was in my closet.”

“Oh,” Roy says, because again, he’s just at a loss. Tim stayed at his _parents_ house. He literally has no idea what to do with that.

Finally, Tim says, “I know what you were thinking.”

“That’s unlikely,” Roy says. “Seeing as how I had no fucking clue what was going on and still don’t, but sure.”

“I mean,” Tim says, being uncharacteristically calm with him. “I know you thought I freaked and bolted because a kid was too much for me.”

“Well,” Roy says, holding his arm out. “You wanna tell me I’m wrong?”

“Yeah,” Tim says. “Because you are. I mean, I can’t blame you because that’s what I thought at first too, but. But then I realized I wasn’t freaking out because you had a kid and that it was going to mess up our lives or whatever. I was freaking out because I didn’t want to mess up hers.”

Roy swears he spends half his time wishing Tim would just fucking talk to him and then when he does he spends the whole time wishing he knew what to do with anything he tells him.

“So you left,” Roy says. “Again.”

Tim frowns, but he doesn’t argue.

“I’m not good with kids,” Tim says. “I just don’t understand them.”

“Join the club,” Roy says.

“I think,” Tim says. “I think it’s because I never really got to be one.”

Roy sighs and sets down on the bed next to him. God, he’s so tired and everything is just so much.

“I’m sorry,” Tim says softly. “I know it’s shit and it doesn’t mean anything, but I am.”

Roy reaches for Tim’s hands and threads their fingers together, then lays his head on Tim’s shoulder. He doesn’t have to say anything. He thinks Tim knows by now.

“I like her,” Tim says, leaning his head against Roy’s.

“Yeah,” Roy says, smiling when Tim squeezes his hand. “Me too.”


End file.
